The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for panorama picture synthesis for synthesizing a panorama picture from a plurality of continuous pictures, and a recording medium storing a panorama synthesis program.
In recent years, a panorama picture synthesis apparatus has been proposed, wherein a plurality of pictures captured by a digital camera (an electronic still camera) are joined to be synthesized to construct a panorama picture. In the apparatus, the digital camera captures a plurality of partial pictures of an object, such that they overlap one another. The captured partial pictures are joined to be synthesized by connecting adjacent partial pictures, to construct a panorama picture.
Pictures may be processed as described above by the digital camera itself. However, it is practical to process pictures in a computer (e.g., a personal computer), in consideration of the cost of the camera, the size of picture data, the processing speed, the size of the processing program, etc. In this case, it is requested to realize a processing apparatus or a processing program for easily performing picture synthesis without requiring complex operations by the user.
However, if the partial pictures constructing the whole picture are all displayed on the personal computer to join and observe adjacent pictures based on the display, the areas of respective partial pictures to be synthesized are reduced as the number of pictures increases. Therefore, the display areas of two pictures to be joined together are so small that it is difficult to accurately join the pictures. In contrast, if partial pictures to be synthesized are enlarged and successively displayed without displaying all the partial pictures, and the partial pictures are joined together with reference to the enlarged pictures, the overall result of synthesis cannot be observed, although the joining process can be confirmed accurately.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-108003 (disclosed Apr. 24, 1998) describes a picture synthesis method in which partial pictures for synthesis are roughly joined by a manual operation, and thereafter automatically synthesized by pattern matching. This method presupposes that a synthesized picture is obtained by a manual operation. Therefore, picture synthesis requires a troublesome operation and a considerable period of time. In addition, it takes a great deal of time to synthesize many pictures by successively joining adjacent pictures, resulting in an increase in load on the user.
On the other hand, if adjacent partial pictures are automatically joined, the load on the user can be reduced. In this case, however, the degree of freedom of joining pictures is less.
An object of the present invention is to provide a panorama picture synthesis apparatus which can accurately join a number of pictures and image the overall portion of a synthesized result during the synthesis process.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panorama picture synthesis apparatus which can reduce the load on the user required to join a number of pictures and keep the degree of freedom of joining the pictures.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium storing a panorama synthesis program for realizing the aforementioned process on a computer.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a panorama picture synthesis apparatus for synthesizing a panorama picture from a plurality of picture data obtained by capturing a plurality of parts of an object such that they overlap one another, the panorama picture synthesis apparatus comprising a whole picture display section which displays a whole picture including all pictures constituting the panorama picture, a partial picture designating section which designates a plurality-of partial pictures within a predetermined range of the whole picture, an automatic synthesizing section which synthesizes the partial pictures designated by the partial picture designating section by automatically joining them to construct an automatically synthesized picture, a manual synthesizing section which divides the automatically synthesized picture into divided pictures in accordance with a predetermined operation, and synthesizes the divided pictures by manually joining them to construct a manually synthesized picture, and a partial picture display section which displays the pictures synthesized by the automatic synthesizing section or the manual synthesizing section in an enlarged size on a screen simultaneously with the whole picture.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a panorama picture synthesis method which comprises the steps of displaying a whole picture including all pictures constituting a panorama picture based on a plurality of picture data obtained by capturing a plurality of parts of an object, such that they overlap one another, designating a plurality of partial pictures within a predetermined range of the whole picture, synthesizing the designated partial pictures by automatically joining them to construct an automatically synthesized picture, dividing the automatically synthesized picture into divided pictures in accordance with a predetermined operation, and synthesizing the divided pictures by joining manually them to construct a manually synthesized picture, and enlarging the partial pictures synthesized by the automatically synthesizing step or the manually synthesizing step and displaying the enlarged partial pictures on a screen simultaneously with the whole picture.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing a panorama picture synthesis program, readable by a computer, used for controlling the computer so as to synthesize a panorama picture from a plurality of picture data obtained by capturing a plurality of parts of an object such that they overlap one another, the program comprising instruction means for instructing the computer to display a whole picture including all pictures constituting the panorama picture, instruction means for instructing the computer to designate a plurality of partial pictures within a predetermined range of the whole picture, instruction means for instructing the computer to synthesize the designated partial pictures by automatically joining them to construct an automatically synthesized picture, instruction means for instructing the computer to divide the automatically synthesized picture into divided pictures in accordance with a predetermined operation, and synthesizing the divided pictures by manually joining them to construct a manually synthesized picture, and instruction means for instructing the computer to display the automatically or manually jointed pictures in an enlarged size on a screen simultaneously with the whole picture.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.